Latest F1 rankings | Antic vs independent media | AI put to good use
This week InSider celebrates 10 years of Adelaide not being boring, while enjoying some not-so-scientific studies and throwing in a koala for good measure.
A Formula 1 list for the times
Formula 1 took the Gen Z world by storm when its Netflix doco Formula 1: Drive to Survive sprinted onto the scenes in 2019. Though some try to understand the terms ‘box’, ‘DRS’ and ‘slipstream‘, some only care when it comes to the end of the race, and the drivers take off their helmets.
Attractiveness is subjective, but here is RANT Casino’s official “sexiness” ratings based on its golden ratio being: height, net worth and total F1 points.
Alex Antic versus independent media
Right-wing South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic talks so often about the evils of the mainstream media that it’s become a key part of his apparently Trump-inspired personal brand.
This would be a slightly bemusing sideshow if had hadn’t successfully just taken over the organisational wing of the South Australian Liberal Party.
He wouldn’t speak in detail to InDaily about his success this week, instead unloading on this publication, his moderate enemies and, frankly, the readers of InDaily (it was, though, a slight improvement on our past efforts to gain his perspectives).
It isn’t surprising: he describes the “mainstream media” as a “malevolent force”.
Logical fallacies, though, are part of the “new” right’s way of operating.
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While he hates the “mainstream media”, Antic has no problem appearing on the network run by… well… Australia’s biggest mainstream media company.
InSider suspects his real problem is with independent journalism.
He’s a regular guest on Sky News after the sun goes down, when the Murdoch channel sends its real journalists home and roll out ideological operatives, like former South Australian conservative senator Cory Bernardi.
Antic got the interview equivalent of a pina colada and a shoulder rub from Bernardi this week, who introduced him with a celebratory summary of his achievements at the Liberal AGM last week. “You’ve purged the power base of wets… You’ve reclaimed the member-based grassroots organisation as it should be.”
Cue big smiles from the Senator, who went on to say the party’s governing council had been dominated by too many “parliamentary staffers” which “I don’t think is a healthy thing”.
Perhaps if Antic had been speaking to an actual journalist, he might have been confronted with the uncomfortable truth: that two of his candidates who were elected last weekend work part-time for federal politicians – including one in his own electorate office.
10 years of Adelaide not being boring
A local podcast celebrated its 10th anniversary this week, with the longevity of the project proving its maxim: that this city is most definitely not boring.
The Adelaide Show podcast began in 2013 with the ironic title, Another Boring Thursday Night in Adelaide, taken from a Redgum song (Well it’s one more boring Thursday night in Adelaide And it looks like everybody must have died, There’s no one on the streets and nothing on TV, Well I think I’ll go and burn my TV guide...).
Since then, marketing man Steve Davis and various co-hosts, originally Colin Richard and Brett Monten, and later Nigel Dobson, have churned out 380 episodes covering a huge range of topics, including journalism and the media.
The show is celebrating its first decade with a “month of Tuesdays” – special episodes over four weeks. There will be a retrospective of the show and a final live broadcast with Adelaide nostalgist Don Violi – a hairdresser by day who once cut Don Dunstan’s hair. So Adelaide.
For the record, InSider reckons one of the most quintessentially Adelaide episodes was the show’s 133th, broadcast in 2016. That episode detailed South Australia’s Great Iced Coffee Showdown in the 1990s, when Dairy Vale tried – and spectacularly failed – to break Farmers Union Iced Coffee’s strangehold on the local market.
For all of the Adelaide Show’s episodes, including its 10th anniversary shows, go here.
A humdinger of a story
Speaking of not being boring, InSider always takes delight in the random press releases that hit our editorial inboxes. A recent one from vibrator manufacturer Lovehoney and Womanizer couldn’t be ignored.
According to the release the companies are “once again breaking through the barriers of imagination and technology, this time giving you a peek into a realm previously hidden from view: what orgasms look like”.
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Elisabeth Neumann, Lovehoney “sexologist and User Research Manager” found out by having five women and five men volunteer to “wear heart-monitoring ECG band sensors during their most intimate moments to capture every heartbeat, every rush, and every moment of release” as they engaged with the company’s products.
The results? A little less sexy than imagined.
SA, the … State
SA has an abundance of number plates.
In addition to standard plates, custom plates, personalised plates, euro plates and corporate plates, Premier Malinauskas went into the last election promising SA motorists could buy Koala State plates.
These special plates went on sale last month, but the announcement was overshadowed by the regular march of politics, including enough union strikes to win a 10-pin bowling championship.
But back to our furry, sometimes imported, friends. The number plate sales will contribute to a fund to help animal rescue groups care for injured and orphaned native animals.
Deputy Premier Susan Close said: “This great initiative expands EzyPlates’ wide selection of number plates that directly benefit those who volunteer to look after our native fauna.”
Even if EzyPlates’ selection isn’t wide enough already, the number of plates it has on offer is still dwarfed by the number of volunteers who stand to benefit from this initiative.
More than 700 wildlife carers each contribute a minimum 500 hours’ voluntary work every year to help animals recover so they can be returned to the wild.
Marian McLucas, Chair, Wildlife United SA and Save Our Wildlife Inc. said: “Wildlife carers sacrifice their time and money to look after our wildlife, often working around the clock to provide feeds, they are amazing selfless human beings providing a 24/7 service free to the community of South Australia.”
But InSider is holding out for the “SA THE STRIKE STATE” plate.
Stuff you should know…
The Government’s crusade against single-use plastics has entered a new era today, with a bunch of household staples now banned for use in SA.
From today, plastic-stemmed cotton buds, plastic pizza savers and single-use plastic plates and bowls are banned.
There are some exemptions however for use of the plastic-stemmed cotton buds and plastic bowls for medical, scientific, forensic or law enforcement purposes.
The government says direct assistance for cafés, restaurants and takeaway businesses is available for free through the government-funded ‘Plastic Free SA’ program, and that since 2021 the program has helped 174 businesses remove more than 8 million single-use items.
